Digital Transnationality and Student Development among Transnational Students from International Schools in China, India, and UAE

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: International Student Across Countries and Career Choices

Proposal

Background
Despite many studies on international student mobility (ISM), the intersection of “hyperconnectivity” (Brubaker, 2022) and international student experiences is only beginning to be explored academically (Chang & Gomes, 2021; Woodman et al., 2023). While the use of technology in higher education institutions (HEIs) became a common landscape, such a shift was spurred significantly out of necessity during the global pandemic.

COVID-19 altered the migratory flows, academic engagement, and everyday lives of international students through potentially traumatic policies and practices around the world, including but not limited to travel restrictions, forced relocations, transitions to disengaging online learning, and resurgence of racism against students of Asian descent, for example (Brotherhood, 2023; Dong et al., 2023; Yao & Mwangi, 2022). These events led the communities in international higher education to call for a 'caring transformation' to support international students’ well-being (Deuchar & Gorur, 2023).

Purpose of the Study
Against this backdrop, our study is concerned with the long-term impacts of the role of technology among international students who live transnational lives. Transnational student development processes are shaped by the simultaneous interactions between the virtual and physical worlds, in the hybrid transnational space between their host countries, ‘home’ countries and/or other countries they resided during the pandemic to continue their studies. We aim to fill the research gap by focusing on their agentic digital transnationality and transnational student development among Generation Z (those born between 1995-2012), as they were the first generation to experience the pandemic during their college years.

Methodology
In this phenomenological study, we use the conceptual framework composed of Twenge et al.’s (2010) generation theory, Gargano’s (2009) transnational social fields, and Baxter Magolda’s self-authorship (Patton et al., 2016) to explore the following questions: 1) How did technology play a role in transnational students’ development from digitized learning to living environments at their colleges/universities? 2) How did transnational students enhance their agency with technology to design their study abroad experiences, especially during the pandemic?

This study is a longitudinal study in which semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom from 2019 to 2023. The participants are former international school attendees in China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. There were 19 participants in the first round of interviews, 15 in the second round, and 11 participants in the third round of interviews. The majority of them went to universities in the U.S. and the U.K. The interviews were transcribed and coded using a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) using Dedoose.

Preliminary Findings and Contribution
Participants described virtual learning as a tough time because of a sense of isolation from their family and friends, lack of engagement, different learning styles, and distractions. Despite all these challenges, they tried to hold a positive attitude, such as appreciating their instructors’ devotion to teaching and the accommodations provided to them. This study has implications for higher education practitioners and scholars to better understand Generation Z students’ needs to provide equitable support for their development in a digital learning environment.

Authors

• Asuka Ichikawa, Boston College

• Minghui Hou, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

• Natalie Irby Cruz, Emory University